‘Could you get him to take the accounts himself, Moonshee Sahib, we might find him out ourselves overcharging in a few days, and so they would fall back to us, and he would be ruined.’
‘Alla knows!’ sighed the Moonshee; ‘at any rate it is worth trying; I will see to it. I am only afraid your turn will come next.’
‘I’ll tell you what, Naser, the thought is not to be borne. What! lose my monthly gains, without which this service is nothing to me!—Inshalla! no. If there is a Kasim Ali Patél, there is at least a Shekh Jaffur Jemadar. I tell thee, man, I was not born to eat dirt at his hands, but he at mine; and if I cannot see into the depths of futurity like the Sultaun (may his name be honoured!), yet I can see far enough to behold this boy’s disgrace at my hands. Dost thou hear—at my hands? thou shouldst know by this time that I rarely fail of my purpose.’
‘May Alla grant it!’ said the Moonshee piously.
‘I tell thee,’ he continued, ‘I hated him from the first, because I found he would stand between me and the Khan. He abused me in hearing of all the camp; those words have gone forth among the men, and as I look in their faces I fancy that the remembrance of them comes into their heart, and that they exult over me. I tell thee this is not to be borne, and I will have an exchange for it, or I will see why; dost thou understand?’
‘I do.’
‘And thou must aid me.’
‘Surely—with my pen, with my advice, my—’
‘Bah! thy advice—who asked for it? who wants that of a fool who could not defend his own papers? when I have occasion for thee in this matter I will tell thee, and see that thou doest it; and—’
‘My lord is not angry with his poor servant?’ said the Moonshee cringingly.